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From: homovegetus0
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  • I've seen atheist meetings with a striking resemblance to church meetings. It's not the Bible and Jesus, it's the selfish gene and Dawkins. In either case, they themselves rarely understand either. It's two sides to one coin.

    People develop their opinion according to the local norms. It is only when a person is marginalized, they break that rule. And usually, they just end out in the opposite ditch.

    People quote science to appear 'brighter' and people quote religion to appear more 'pius'.

  • So funny since Michael Palin is heavily into science, namely astronomy.

  • *punch* Thank you. I needed that.

  • Amazing... I never grow tired of watching it. It is also a powerful dispeller of dawkinists foruns... surely because it is disconcerting to be confronted with true geniality.

  • Comment removed

  • The real problem is that as humans we have a tendency to harden our opinions into dogmas. Our attitude by nature, is to be close minded and question everything except our own assumptions. Religious people, contrary to what many espouse, ARE capable of critical thinking, just not in regards to their own beliefs! And sadly, many scientists are guilty of the same hypocrisy. The scientific method practiced ideally is a pursuit of the unknown, not an inflexible dogmatic materialist worldview.

  • @GermanOperaSinger

    True... everyone has a blind spot he refuses to aknowledge.

  • John Cleese is my hero! :)

  • "[There is] only one means to curtail, simplify and localize the bloody agony of the old society and the bloody birth-pangs of the new, only one means-the revolutionary terror." -Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

    Religion, atheism, and political ideologies don't kill people. People kill people.

  • Wait, who is he criticizing?

  • @Dorminay42

    Mostly atheists, overall fanatics and people who confuse beliefs with science.

    In other words, anyone who becomes desperately and fanatically fixated with his own vision of the world and who tries to impose it on everyone else by "validating" it with pseudo-science.

  • @seppsters I'm an Atheist but I don't try to change religious people's minds. I can respect someone who puts his faith in something higher. Though personally I find it silly.

    however, ALL religions ( including Budhism, yes) have no respect for women. Islam is about peace and helping the poor for example, but there is NO respect for womens rights, wrong in my opinion. Christianity has based itself around racism and bigotry, however, through logic thinking, this is dying.

  • Nothing has murdered, tortured or descriminated more people than systems based on atheism or systems without strong dogmatic spiritual values. The most disgusting (but definitely not the only) manifestation of this was communism, there was plenty of hatred and bigotry there, yet no religion

    You seem to believe that rational thought will inevitably lead to ethical behaviour and this is complete and absolute non-sense

    If you really worry about people's welfare you should at least support religions

  • @seppsters even the communists had a religion look at Soviet they were christian orthodox christians.

    China are buddhistic. Cuba is christian in fact most people in a country are religious. And now the christian crusades killed about 2,000'000 people not to talk about the spanish inquistion who killed and tortured many.

    The abrahamitic wars are big killing machines and yet you say that religion do not kill. And I never believed in god and I live ethically correct. And even animals live ethical.

  • @livedandletdie

    China was buddhistic, Soviet Union was Christian ? Rofl,you have no idea of what you're talking and you're not getting the point. You seem to be too stupid to understand that "abrahamitic" religions caused alot less death and misery than atheism or lack of spiritual belief and if you're too stupid too understand that, there's no point in debating any further.

  • @seppsters It is you who is "too stupid too understand". Lack of belief has never motivated someone to comitt crimes against humanity. No genocide or war was ever started to spread atheism. On the other hand, the spread of religion has killed millions of people.

    BTW: Only 16% of Russians and just 14% of Chineese people are athiests. In fact, 70% of Russians are Christian.

  • @Md2802 Athiesm was part of the state sponsered ideology associated with communism. There were wars and genocide to help spread communism. So yes and also spread athiesm as part of the comunist ideology. Religious people persecuted and killed because they chose to believe in something.

    I'm not taking sides with religion, I'm anti-religious. I'm just stating facts. I beleive people should be free to beleive in or not beleive in what they want or don't want to beleive in. I beleive in freedom.

  • @14sJakeB190 Although athiesm was part of the Soviet Unions state ideology, religion was never officially outlawed. Of the estimated 20 million people who died under Stalin's rule, relatively few were killed because of their religious beliefs [roughly 80,000 (0.4%) to 200,000 (1%)].

  • @Md2802 Still, it happened.

    Political ideologies, religion, lack of religion, ideas, etc, don't kill people. People kill people.

  • @Md2802 Fortunately that's only a small percentage.Stelin wasn't that bad after all, right. What a relief!

  • @seppsters I neutral on the religion vs non-religion debate. But I have to point out that combined over the history of humanity religion has been a tool used to motivate people to kill other people. I have no idea how many people have been killed as a result, but it's probably more than Athiesm.

    Athiesm may have killed more people in the 20th century, but not total combined.

    So if both religion and athiesm kills... I think neither kills. I think people kill people.

  • @seppsters not to be a cunt but the thing religion have done is create fundamentalists that kills people everyday.

    In the bible it says to kill everyone if they misbehave. All religions support wars so called crusades. look at christianity after year 0 in the name of christianity have 8 million people died at least. In the name of atheism 0.

    Communists live by one rule everyone is the same and everybody should share. But it is as they say a fool that uses god as defence has no defence.

  • @livedandletdie

    Again, you seem to be using your personal opinions/problems and distort historical facts. "In the name of atheism" ? How about "not in the name of religion" ? or "in the name of self-interest". You'll find alot of people had been killed NOT in the name of religion by the year 0. The bible states a commandment: Thou shalt not murder. Commandments override any other statement there.

  • @bramlegend

    Reply alert

    But in most cases, what motivates people to leave religions is not concern for others.

  • @bramlegend Why do you blindly generalize them all?

    You forgot about Sikhism.

    "The role of women in Sikhism is outlined in the Sikh scriptures, which state that the Sikh woman is to be regarded as equal to the Sikh man."

    Source: Google search.

  • @14sJakeB190 kay sorry about that then but my point is just that religion has been the cause of a lot of injustices including racism, the crusades, torture, witch hunting, abuse and disregard towards women, etc...

    I don't think however that one should outlaw religion in general, any religion. As long as you don't give spiritual leaders ACTUAL power, because that's just a recipe for disaster.

    Just a month ago, there was this video of priests attacking each other, imagine that with armies.

  • that ought of shut him up

  • Have my babies, John Cleese.

  • eww Nickolas Cage movies

  • @penisfuckeye Wild at Heart is good.

  • I learned a lot from this. Not a lie.

  • God, that's hilarious! XD

  • anyone find this a parody on the modern notion of genetic predisposition?

    (Which often convices people that they have little to no control over the quality of their life versus those who say nutrition and lifestyle have MUCH more influence on the genetic development of a living being)

    Most importanty: LOL!

  • @MrJustSandy No, he is making fun of fundamentalist materialists who have a naive 19th century impression of what science is telling us about the nature of reality.

  • Where is the Gene Simmons?

  • My gene made me "like" this video.

  • he looks like my old chemistry teacher in this video!

  • reductionism all as bad as people make it look like

    huge python fan btw !!!

  • RIP Graham Chapman.

  • He is wrong about quantum mechanics, it does not say that you cant explain everything mechanically it says that mechanics becomes statistical in nature and a bit hard to explain, but it is still, quantum MECHANICS. So just so people know, although i love john cleese... please become qualified before you start talk knowingly about quantum mechanics, its a fairly simple idea thats really difficult to explain.

  • @pedrosanchez89 dood. have some coconut ice cream and chill the heck down - it's "comedy", from the Latin "comoedia" and the Greek "komoidia", meaning "an amusing spectacle". notice: an AMUSING spectacle, not an "edifying" spectacle, an "educational" spectacle, or even a "factually correct" spectacle.

  • @threenorns3 Lol calm down man I'm chilled. His comedy is a means to an end in this example, not just flat out comedy, and I study quantum physics and a lot of people take it to conclusions which it doesnt lead to, which is annoying because I'm just a bit stuck up like that and would prefer people to get their facts right rather than believe things that aren't true. Also a hell of a lot of people dont keep the fact that cleese doesnt know what he is talking about in their minds when watching.

  • @pedrosanchez89 thats actually not true...he is insulting the subject because of his vast knowledge of the content...

  • @pedrosanchez89 i agree and i disagree....the statistical nature of quantum mechanics does imply that the universe is fundamentally non-mechanistic, though you are right that it wouldn't transfer into a theory of mind. a more reasonable non-reductionist mind theory involves emergence, not quantum mechanics. it's all about levels of complexity.

  • @pedrosanchez89 Actually, there is no consensus about that. A lot of actual quantum physicists hold differing opinions, and some certainly hold opinions contrary to what materialistic reductionism could ever account for.

  • @pedrosanchez89 you do realise he's probably reading from a script

  • @marcusantonio91 Its john cleese, he probably wrote it.

  • Haha! That was great. But I'm not so sure about that Nucleic Acid model...

  • "...and we scientists now know that it's closely linked to this gene, here, which gives you such a weak sense of self that you hang on to anything that makes you feel more secure emotionally whether it's fundamentalist religion or a reductionist view of the universe." lmao x 5. This is fantastic.

  • mmmmmmmmmm?????

  • Gene-ius...

  • This video gave Daniel Dennett another heart attack so he disliked it 47 times.

  • 1:17 ...Right next to the gene that makes you want to see Nicholas Cage movies.

    I have that gene!!!

  • Wow i never knew that john cleese was a narcissist.

    he seems so sure of himself and full of himself that he has the answer to everything.

  • @piromaniac9999 You missed the point of the video mate, he's claiming that nobody can know everything but some people, like himself are completely smartarses. He's not being narcissistic, he's being sarcastic. Perhaps it's just our british humour you may have misinterpreted, sarcasm is part of our culture. :-)

  • strange since i watch plenty of british comedy.

  • @piromaniac9999 I rather think that's exactly NOT what he's saying...

  • yes, yes, yes..this is so good! 'Frog in the well' philosophy - material science can manipulate material nature - BUT it cannot undertand it's origins. 

  • And this gene makes people surf for the internet porn.

  • @AnatoleEricsson:

    Unlike you, Cleese is at least making an argument.. Do you care actually to make an argument to enlighten us as to why Cleese's position is "weak", or shall we just accept your word on the subject? Yeah, that's what I thought....

  • Nicholas Cage is a gift from God.

  • @wingnutofcoolness I...think you misspelled; that's J-O-H-N C-L-E-E-S-E

  • what song is that ?, its good :)

  • i love cleese

  • There is clearly a gene which makes people argue about this video

  • Wow. People are REALLY reading too deep into a satirical "As usual, NO ONE really knows what the hell is going on" Joke.

  • @MrPossessed

    He really does mean that no one really knows what's going on.

  • @MarshmallowEyes Exactly. Which is why the two sides on the religious debate, arguing in this thread, strikes me as so funny. The point went RIGHT over their head.

  • @MrPossessed

    Ah, I thought you were arguing the opposite. So we both understand John Cleese...as for the rest of them, if John Cleese cannot sugar-coat the idea in enough humor, there is no helping them. :)

  • @MrPossessed It's actualy sarcasm against scientists making things up having an explaination for everything.

  • @korzon Yes, John Cleese, an outspoken supporter of rationalism and skepticism is clanking down on scientists with an argument that is weaker than an american Budweiser. Nice try.

  • Did he just troll both atheists and fundamentalists in the same 2 minutes?

  • @lectrick Yes, lol!

  • Love it!

  • John Cleese is a bloody legend! I love him a little bit more for this video. :D

  • fucking champion

  • "and this is the gene that makes you forget that in the 1920's Quantum Mechanics utterly destroyed any Mechanical view of the Universe"

    haha, so Cool.

  • I prefer his early, funny ones.

  • Real name = John Cheese

  • Wow -- we non-scientists who have just seen this video now know that it was pretty f**king funny. But, alas, I see that the comments below consist of the usual verbal abuse being exchanged by people who, however f**king funny they may have initially found the video, nonetheless would vastly prefer to have a rabid ideological argument about its meaning. [sigh]

  • Why would reductionism make you feel better?

  • @nothingnesswithouten

    because it gives a false sense of explanaition of the universe.. a bit like saying 'god made it so', but more useful

  • @underdonkey5 Yes, I see. In any case, I suppose the question should be whether reductionism (once clearly defined) is correct or incorrect and not whether it makes one feel good or bad.

  • @nothingnesswithouten

    I think we should try and avoid 'correct' and 'incorrect' when applied in general terms. We have an evolved brain that thinks in a certain way. We will never get around our logic, and nothing is absolutely 'objective'. However, science is really useful, and we can 'think' of concepts beyond normal experience e.g. wave-partical duality, radio-waves. Reductionism works, but anything we think, is not reality, just a model!

  • And we all know that what John Cleese says is the God's truth.

  • @vivalaleta

    in a way, yes. As part of creation, we are all expressing God's truth ;)

  • @underdonkey5 What God?

  • @vivalaleta

    the God you were referring to in the line before

  • @underdonkey5 The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

  • Comment removed

  • @guigs219

    I would advise you to ease down on the rhetoric, and instead be a little more argumentative. If you would like to be taken seriously - or at least make your points clear or simply believable, it might be in your favour to especially calm down the pathos.

    As it is, as Zhero4 says, they way you formulate your sentences may actually do you a disfavour, and make you seem religious. (Ref: The fact that you typed Atheist, as seen with a capital letter, when in fact this is incorrect)

  • Cleese is a Gen - ius

  • SCOTT BEITEL HAS A TINY LITTLE HEAD

  • Funny but somewhat wrong

  • Not fallacious or scientifically illiterate at all.

  • Poorly written

  • @tnekkc is this Christianity poorly written or the sketch?

  • i want him to b my science teacher

  • I absolutely love it.

  • Where is the gene that makes me surf on YouTube looking for silly videos?

  • @sergiomats Between the gene that makes you think old people are annoying and the gene that makes you like banana cream pie. 

  • @sergiomats It's right between the gene that makes you post quotes from a video as a comment and the gene that makes you believe anything said with a British accent.

  • @sergiomats Right under the one that makes people hit the "thumbs up" button

  • @sergiomats You found it, being here

    

  • @sergiomats Right near the odd gene that makes me feel a need to reply to comments.

  • @sergiomats not sure, cause tyhis is where the intelligent video @

  • @sergiomats the CleeseIzzeAwesome gene

  • @sergiomats maybe you're related to John Cleese!

  • factanistas, with their pier review method. Seen one pier you seen them all, I say.

  • After seeing this I start asking myself: Where is the gene that gives me the urge to slap someone in the face with a fish?

  • @LordMandylion It's the IRC gene.

  • HOLY SHIT.

    This man is awe-inspiringly brilliant.

  • @curriejean

    I agree, Cleese is awesome.

  • Thank You, Mr Cleese!

  • I really need to say something about? No? Ok... but I say: great!

  • John Cleese demolishes the "closed system" nonsense made up by materialists.

  • Our acting it's not metrial matter it's spiritual matter

  • @guigs219 Good posts. It's also worth adding that Hitler wrote in his book "Mein Kampf(y Chair? :D) that Darwin was basically a twat and God made everything.

  • I love cleese, always funny

  • Just recently scientists discovered the gene that causes Materialists to have the desire to explain everything in materialistic terms... even explain the immaterial mind which they employ in manufacturing their Monist explanations that prove it is indeed, "material"

    Thus, Psychologists are capable of "speaking" illness into remission. "You are HEALED, I command you". oh oh... convulsion time!

  • He forgot to mention the gene that makes some people speak with a accent which ruins the American language

  • You mean English?

  • Interesting discussions.

    Morality only requires the realization that there are others "like me" out there. I don't like being harmed, therefore I don't harm others. No religion needed.

    As for religion. the burden of proof is on those who claim there is a god, and there is no evidence to support this claim. (Throughout our history we have made up - and sometimes later discarded - Ra, Thor, Zeus, Allah, Jesus, Vishnu, and all the rest, which leads me to suspect that it's all incorrect.)

  • @lds8714 Oh hey nothing in this bit of space I guess there's nothing there OH WHAT'S THAT YOU SAW MR. HAWKING?

  • @Lazyguy22

    --- part 1 of 2 ---

    Hawking has spent his life exploring the consequences of Einsteins general relativity, (and hoping to unite it with quantum mechanics, which no one has yet been able to do). Neither he nor anyone else has found stuff where nothing is there. Scientific claims rely on evidence.

  • @Lazyguy22

    --- part 2 of 2 ---

    True, black holes have not been directly observed, but there is tons of evidence in the ultra high x-ray frequency radiation patterns emitted by charged particles falling into intense gravitational fields consistent with black hole theory. Is this proof that black holes exist? No. But physics is not about proof. Its about levels of confidence supported by evidence. Thats hardly nothing.

  • @lds8714 Christ, remind me to never tell a joke when you're around.

  • @Lazyguy22

    oops... sorry.

  • @lds8714 Hey, don't worry about it. :) Sometimes I forget whether I'm making a joke or not, in the middle of a joke. I certainly found your posts interesting and informative :)

  • LOL you guys (Guigs219 & Zhero4) are deep. Of course, kudos to ya'll for turning what is normally uncontrolled ranting and hate spewing and turning it into a TRUE debate. Not that ya'll are making much progress here, but hey, it's organized. Wish congress could debate like ya'll...

  • nope.

    i defend reasonable believers, who make out the silent majority of almost every faith but don't attract peoples attention because they aren't as loud mouthed as fanatics.

  • never said that.

  • no they wouldn't.

    you can explain every behaviour morally, be it as violent as you like.

  • so if someone sayd: i hate homosexuals becourse it's unnatural, otherwhise they could get children. that would be fine by you?

    and if you are not talking about religions but about its leaders (the churches) then why did you call it sad that people still believe in religion? because that attacks each and every small believer in this world and not the churches.

  • the question i liked answered is weather you would disrespect someone to values moral higher than his fellow man.

    and again, yes people are judgemental and they treat you better, if you are "one of them but thats not, what religion was made for and people don't need religion to be like that, it's just what they use to be able to claim having a point.

  • and yes there are black sheep, but there is nothing which doesn't create something like that.

    there are people who kill themselves, because they are broken hearted, would you therefore claim love to e a evil thing?

    and why haven't you answered my question yet?

  • you didn't get my point: of course i know, that atheism isn't about anger, but if i take what i see right now and ignore the information i don't like i can argur that it is. and thats exactly what you do with religion.

    and what is that nonsense about religions being organized and atheism not?

    you have to keep in mind that religions have created several jobs: a priest is a job and i am sure that professional atheists if they exist have a ranking system.

  • would you first answer my question?

  • hats like me saying: you are aggressive so atheism is all about irrational hatred.

    don't you see, that you have no prove for what you are saying and that you are clinging to this belive of yours just becourse it is an easy explanation, supplying you with an easy enemy rather than admitting that not religion is the problem but people being able to turn everything into a weapon, be it science, believe, moral or anything else?

    and 9-11 had nothing to do with religion.

  • so you would disrespect someone who values moral higher than his fellow man?

    and how come you don't see the irony in what you are saying?

    you are so aggressive in your believes yet you complain about religions being to vile. and a church is not a religion. the pope is not a religion. if he does something its not the religion that does it. duozends of popes where murderers and slept around with whores but that is not what the religion is about.

  • i defend them from being verbally abused by people, who have no more or less prove than they do.

    you have yet to prove to me:

    1: that they are wrong.

    2.: that religion is as you said the cause of murder hatred and so on and is not just abused to promote it.

    you complain about them believing mindlessly in something without any prove but you do exactly the same. you believe in science but your arguments aren't scientific.

  • as to your AIDS argument: no i am not a person of great faith, i am simply defending those who are.

    and if he exists one could argue, that he doesn't cure all the AIDS infected people, but he has given us the tools to find out how to do it our selfs.

  • i think we are clear on point 1 now.

    2.: of course evolution is real, what made you think, i didn't believe that? and yes it is a contradiction, if it realy is what he said... but lets take america as an example: america startet a couple of wars, and it had slavery for quite some time, yet you wouldn't say that the sole purpose of america is war and injustice, now would you?

    it's the same with religion: sure, there where mistakes made by their leaders, but that soesn't make the hole idea bad.

  • 1.: you obviously didn't read what i wrote, so i'll just quote myself: "i did never intend to say, that the nazis where right in any way."

    2.: so what, now you say there IS a god? and even though, have you never done anything which contradicted what you actually belive in? never said anything you regretted later on?

    and i never said he didn't say it, i just said, thats not, what the bible is about.

  • oh snap, hit me with the bible, no one ever got that idea before.

    i said people take the parts of religions they like and ignore the rest in order to justify their murder.

    the fact that "thou shalt not kill" as one uf the ten commands is surely more important than this lovely little anecdote is ignored...

    and the nazis used the same tecnique... they took parts of Darwins theory and ignored others to make it confirm teir believes.

  • i did never intend to say, that the nazis where right in any way.

    and religion doesn't say, that god said make a war, its religious leaders, that do and they have political reasons to do so.

  • again: i dont see the big difference between a war justified by a distorted religion or a war justified by distorted science.

    its people, fundamentalists, politicians or what ever you want to call them who start wars and they will abuse anything they can to justify themselfes. in the past it happened to be religion becourse there was no science as we know it. if there had been a stronger believe in science it would surely have been justified that way.

  • so? you just say "There is no God" why should anyone believe that?

    again you are not listening to what i said: religion doesn't start wars. its the people who lead them and who have definitive political motivations.

    no islamist attacked america for centuries but once the islamist leaders could hope to gain power by attacking america (you will see therefore that none of the leaders seem to be eager to become suizidebombers themselfes) they use religion in the same way nazis used science.

  • so you are admiting that you have no counter facts?no proof that there is no god?than how do you know that it's all made-up?

    next point: so i used a different word, i meant the same thing... he used certain thing he needed and ignored the other stuff just like people do with religion. they read the parts of what ever holy book they happen to have within the reach of their arms

    and i know what you mean but non of the mayor religions are based on violence they get used to justify it but thats it.

  • i don't see your point there.

    first of all can you prove that there is not one true religion? or at least one true grain covered in a lot of rituals and so on?what difference does it make if he abused real facts?

    Is it in anyway less horrible what Hitler did because he turned the word of great minds into a hatespeech?

    and noone invented religions to start wars if it were, parcifism would not be an option in religions. buddhism wouldn't exist and non of what jesus said would be in the bible.

  • my point exactly.

    what Hitler said was absolute nonsense, but he used or abused, to be more precisely the scientific theories to justify his actions,just like fundamentalists use religion to justify their actions. Religion isn't the course for genocide in the same way, that science isn't the course for genocide. people use both of them by taking means of conscious reduction and misinterpretation.

    its not even about fundamentallism to be honest: most of the wars have a clear political motivation.

  • that is only half true, religions dont start wars, fundamentalists do, they only happen to explain it with religion which goes for science as well. since you mentioned genocide ill talk about the nazis even though i'd rather not.

    they explained lots of what they did with pseudo science: evolution as a reason for murder, which of course is not what it is about just like religion isn't about hatred but they justified their actions with what they called science.

    so does science start genocide?

  • Wow. Is this podcast just on YouTube? 'Cause if it is, it's the only really quality online video I've seen in a long time.

  • This is one of the best things there has ever been.

  • lol at genetic determinism. good show, Cleese!

  • It's not a gene that causes people to believe in god, but a neurotoxic chemical called theotoxin. Theotoxin is found in abundance in the brains of religious people and destroys the parts of the brain that controls logic, empathy, and openmindedness.

  • Yes, it's close to the gene that causes atheism and causes irrational belief such as: the world created itself out of nothing; things appear designed, but aren't; moral values exist, but cannot exist if we are just atoms and molecules. Look up Thinking Matters New Zealand and come over and have a chat...

  • You've got a severe case of theotoxosis if i've ever seen one.

  • CAN HE BE SAVED DOCTOR?

  • I don't know. His case seems to be pretty severe. However, the Romans used to cure theotoxosis with lions.

  • then its fair to say that conservatives, republicans and red necks are filled to the brim with that stuff.

  • @120c Indeed many of them are. Indeed.

  • @120c I see YOU have the gene that makes people miss the point of comedy sketches, and the gene that makes you take everything incredibly seriously. Cheerio.

  • @120c And then I glanced down the page and realized that almost everyone who has commented on this has that gene. It must be linked to the gene that makes you want to post comments on YouTube in the first place; I think I'm going to go do something else now . . .

  • @120c No, they have the gene that makes you have sex with your siblings.

  • LOL @ AresCassell. I'd want the CAS registry number and the molecular